Everything Always Happens Suddenly
by Bellie149
Summary: Yet another Jily story! Focuses more on the start of their 7th Year until they finally get together. I do not own any of the characters!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

**I know there are a lot of James and Lily stories out there, but I wanted to add my contribution to the never ending supply of Jily stories!**

* * *

Lily Evans could not wait for September 1st. It had been quite a crappy summer and in her opinion, had gone on far too long.

She'd spent most of her time by herself, since her sister Petunia had decided this year not to even acknowledge Lily's presence on the earth. It made a change from last year when she spent the entire time Lily was at home ignoring her, giving her pointed looks, and making snarky comments to her boyfriend whenever her parents invited him for tea, which was nearly every night. It had actually sickened Lily to say boyfriend, the man was hideous.

He was loud, judgemental, arrogant, and continuously went on about how fabulous his sister Marge was, and how Petunia would learn so much from having a 'proper' sister, one who was home all the time. Lily had spent every evening holding her tongue, internally fighting every instinct to brandish her wand in his face and send all manner of hexes at him.

But she didn't.

She effectively became a mute during those dinners. Her mother had always told her if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all. Petunia's tactic was fairly easy to carry out this year since she had moved into a ridiculously suburban home that didn't suit her, but definitely suited her even more ridiculous husband. Petunia had married the insufferable man earlier on this year. He had proposed shortly after Lily had returned to Hogwarts last year and the wedding was horrendous.

When he found out about Lily's magical ability last Christmas, which was a complete accident as Petunia wished to keep it hidden forever, and only happened because an owl dropping off Lily's Christmas present from Hestia landed on his head and proceeded to stay there for a good ten minutes, he demanded that Petunia never speak to her sister again. Lily had thought she might have realised blood was thicker than water but she was completely heartbroken to find out Petunia planned to carry out his wishes.

So instead of helping Petunia move out like her parents, Lily stayed in her room practising spells. She had turned 17 before the summer and Hestia has thrown a spectacular surprise party that was going swimmingly well, until Severus decided to crash it. No one had yet to work out how he got into the Gryffindor common room, and Severus had yet to realise that he was no longer welcome at the Evans' since Lily had informed her parents of the incident in their fifth year. This summer he spent every day sat on the bench opposite her house until Mr Evans called the police.

Lily would have expected to see her friends this summer but Hestia was abroad touring Italy with her parents, Marlene had got Dragon Pox at the start of the summer so was unable to meet up for fear of infecting everybody (she told Lily she was going to be at Hogwarts for their last year, even if it killed her!) and Alice seemed to be away when Lily was at home, and Lily was away was Alice was at home. This meant Lily had to go to Diagon Alley by herself, which really sucked. Normally her parents came with her but her Grandma was very ill. Lily loved her Grandma, she was the kindest person on the planet and outside of her family, she was Lily's only relative. When Lily wasn't practicing spells, she was at her Grandma's house and reading to her. Like Lily, her Grandma loved Jane Austen books. With everything going on with her family, the only pleasant memory of Lily's summer was receiving her Head Girl badge. She had never felt so proud, and when she wrote to her friends, their responses consisted of lot of 'I-told-you-so's.

So when Lily arrived at Platform 9-and-three-quarters, she was relieved to put an end to her miserable summer. Pushing her trolley through the wall, she smiled at the sight of the scarlet train waiting for students. She had truly become to think of Hogwarts as her home and leaving will be the hardest thing to do. Lily didn't know what she wanted to do after her NEWTs; she just wanted to help people. She was brought out of her reverie by an ambush of three squealing girls and her vision became blocked by a mass of blonde curls. Lily grinned as she untangled herself from Marlene, who had quite literally thrown herself at Lily.

"Cotton! I missed you!" Lily raised her eyebrows at Marlene's nickname. Since they met in their first year, Marlene had greeted Lily every September with a new nickname. Lily's particular favourite was when Marlene called her 'Bush' for the whole of their third year (Marlene's logic was that as lilies and roses were her favourite flower, she would call her 'Bush' because roses came from a bush!)

"Cotton?"

"Yeah, Cotton, because you know, cotton comes from a plant, and lilies are a plant..." Marlene's explanation dwindled off when she caught the eye of an attractive seventh year Hufflepuff. "Anyway, I'll see you girlies on the train!" Marlene followed the Hufflepuff and disappeared into the crowd.

Lily shook her head at Marlene, her behaviour was nothing new, and turned to Hestia and Alice. Both girls had dark brown hair but Alice wore hers in a bob and Hestia's was straight and reached the bottom of her shoulder blades whereas, Lily had dark red hair that cascaded down her back in gentle waves until it reached her waist. As a group, they were all fairly small and Alice was the smallest at 5'2".

Lily embraced the other girls in a hug and they set off to find a carriage. They were lucky and found one straight away, so they settled and waited for Marlene to reappear. At 11, the train set off and at 10 past Lily waved goodbye to her friends and moved along the train to the Prefect's carriage. As Head Girl she was expected to lead these meetings and that scared her. She had never had to lead anything; she had left Brownies by the time her Hogwarts letter came so she never got the chance to be a patrol leader. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts and worrying about her duties as Head Girl that she didn't realise she was at the Prefect's carriage until she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

"Lily!" She turned and saw Remus standing outside the carriage, arms crossed with one eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Yeah?"

"You do realise you walked straight past the Prefects' carriage?"

Lily blushed when she realised Remus right and she had no valid excise as to why she was so wrapped up in her head. She couldn't very tell everyone that the Head Girl was querying her own abilities. After childishly sticking out her tongue at Remus, who chuckled softly in response, she slipped past him and walked into the carriage. She faltered at the door however when she saw who sitting on the benches.

"Potter? You do realise that this isn't really accessible to students other than Prefects or the Head Boy and Girl."

James looked at Lily and instantly his face was brighter. The smile he gave Lily made her uncomfortable. It wasn't his trademark smirk that she always wanted to slap off his face whenever she saw it. It looked genuine, and Lily was ill prepared to cope with a Genuine James Potter.

"Yeah, that's why I'm here."

"You're a Prefect?! That's not really believable Pot-"

"No, I'm, er, Head Boy."

Lily stopped speaking. Her body was going into shock. She must have looked like a right sight, standing there bright red, her mouth opening and closing like fish. Surely Dumbledore hadn't really made Potter Head Boy. She thought it was going to be Remus. She didn't get along with Potter; _everybody_ knew that, especially Dumbledore. She wanted to scream or hit something, maybe Potter?

_Don't be daft Lily; you'll just come off worse._

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she nodded at Potter.

"Let's just get this over with, shall we?"

* * *

**Reviews welcome and appreciated :)**


	2. Chapter 2

Lily was pacing. She was ignoring the bemused looks on her friends' faces and was pacing up and down the carriage. In reality she was taking three steps and then turning around to walk three steps and then turn round again. But she needed to pace. She had developed it as a technique of working off her stress to prevent her from shouting at people and lashing out. Being a redhead had its disadvantages. Aside from the inability to tan and the ability to go from albino to tomato in a matter of seconds, her short temper caused more problems than it solved.

Her friends knew that this was her way of calming herself down, but what they didn't know is why she needed to calm down.

"Lily?" Lily stopped mid-pace and turned to Alice, a surprisingly blank expression on her face.

"Yes?"

"Why are you pacing?"

Lily rolled her eyes and began pacing again. Her strides got bigger and bigger until she was literally turning on the spot.

"LILY!"

Alice stood up and stopped her from turning by grabbing onto her shoulders. Lily glared at her friend, but Alice looked at her very sternly until Lily relented and sat down.

Sighing, Lily cradled her head in her hands. She mumbled something, well aware that the others couldn't hear her.

"Yeah, Cotton, not a single one of us heard that."

"I said: James Potter has been made Head Boy." Lily raised her head in time to see Alice's mouth drop and Marlene's eyes to widen in disbelief. However, Lily noted that Hestia was smiling slightly.

"Hestia Jones, if I find out that you knew, and you didn't tell me..." Lily trailed off. Everyone was fully aware of Lily's ability to threaten her friends was particularly rubbish, but in this case, the whole compartment recognised the warning tone in her voice.

"Yes alright, I knew. Sirius told me."

This dropped a further bombshell. All three girls turned to stare at Hestia, who had suddenly become very interested in her nails.

"Sirius told you?" Lily's voice became very high pitched and one could nearly see steam rising from her head. "When did Sirius tell you?"

Hestia shrank slightly under Lily's glare. "When he came to my house to meet my parents."

Marlene's eyebrow rose slightly, "But Hestia, you were touring Italy all summer."

"Well, I was for the first month, but then I got bored and so Mum and Dad said I could go home because my Grandpa would still be house sitting for us and he would keep an eye on me, so I went home and then I was in Diagon Alley by myself and I bumped into Sirius and we spent the rest of the day together and we kept spending time together and now he's my boyfriend."

Hestia looked out of breath after her speech. The compartment was silent. Alice looked a bit smug (she had always thought Hestia and Sirius would finally get together-she had bet on with Remus and Frank and Hestia's testimony was proof that Alice was owed five galleons from each boy), Marlene looked quite impressed as Hestia had managed to tame the wild man-whore that was Sirius Black, but Lily looked put out. Hestia was her best friend, and not only did she not tell her about her boyfriend and lie in the process, she had to go and choose the best friend of the boy who had caused her grief for the past six years of her life.

Lily could feel her temper beginning to rise so she did the only thing she could think of, she began to pace again.

* * *

James Potter was conflicted. He was overjoyed about the fact that he got to see the girl who he had spent the last few years pining after. But then he was nervous about spending all the time as Heads together because their conversations always ended in arguments. But then again, the conversation they'd had in the Prefects' carriage hadn't ended in an argument, so maybe they could get on. But James had sworn to himself that this year he was going to get over her and so spending time with her would de-rail his plans to get over her.

James was so engrossed in the feelings and emotions running through his head that he failed to pay attention to the Sorting and only realised that food had appeared when Sirius flicked a potato at him.

He blinked several times and saw Remus and Frank laughing at him. Sirius just grinned at James.

"I bet you were thinking about the fact that you get to share a dorm with Lilyflower aren't you?"

James dropped his fork.

_SHIT! _

He had completely forgotten about the Heads' dormitories. That was going to de-rail his plan even further.

After Dumbledore had dismissed them from the feast, James looked around for Lily; he assumed they had to show the younger students where to go. But he couldn't see her at all. Remus took pity on him and handed him the parchment Lily had been holding earlier on during the feast. It was a map to the Heads' common room. Thanking Remus, James made his way through the crowds of people. It wasn't hard really; he was Gryffindor Quidditch team captain and the leader of the Marauders, people knew who he was so they went out of their way to make a gap for him to pass through. He grinned at a group of third years who pulled first years out of his path, and he chuckled to himself when he heard them exclaiming about the fact that "gorgeous James Potter smiled at THEM!"

He reached the portrait of Norman the Normal and not knowing what else to do, he tapped on the side of the portrait. It was pushed open and he found an exasperated Hestia Jones.

"Hestia? What are you doing here?"

"Trying to talk some sense into her" Hestia jerked her head at Lily. "I'm going to bed, make sure she at least gets some sleep." And with that, Hestia bade him goodnight and closed the portrait door behind her.

James turned away from the door and looked at Lily. The redhead was pacing. Up and down, round the sofas and back towards the door. James sat down on the sofas waiting for Lily to notice he was there. But she was too absorbed in her paces that she didn't show any signs of acknowledging he was here. James had spent the last few years of his life observing Lily, and discovering the little quirks which made her who she was. James knew that she was now trying to abate some of her anger away.

For half an hour he stayed silent. Lily was still pacing. At half past 11, he stood up and looked at Lily.

"Goodnight Lily."

Lily jumped, she full on jumped right in the air. When she landed, she clutched her chest and was breathing heavily.

"_When _did you get here?!"

"Half an hour ago, when Hestia left."

"Hestia left?"

James stared at Lily is disbelief. She had been so intent on calming herself, she had forgotten to realise other people existed.

"Have you been waiting for me to speak to you? Sorry, I just got caught up in my..." Lily trailed off, a blush rising on her cheeks.

"Pacing?" James offered helpfully

Lily nodded. "I'm going to go to bed now Pot-James. Night."

James' heart began to race when he heard her correct herself and say James.

"Goodnight Lily."

She turned and gave him a small smile. James' heart leapt and he realised that they'd had another encounter with no argument.

She was definitely going to de-rail his plans.


	3. Chapter 3

The first few weeks at Hogwarts passed like blur to Lily, a blur that was N.E.W.T level homework, Head Girl duties and avoiding Severus. Two years later and he still was unable to understand that Lily didn't want anything to do with him. These days, whenever they passed in the corridor, he would stare at her with an intensity that rivalled the way James Potter used to look at her.

James Potter. Lily had been pleasantly surprised by him. He stopped hexing Slytherins unless they deserved it, he took his Head Boy duties, didn't make living in the Heads' dorm unbearable. In fact, she hardly saw him. With exception of the rounds that they had both been assigned to, Lily never saw James. He never made sure his presence in a room was known to her, something he had been doing every year since their first year. He had even broken his habit, and stopped asking her out all the time.

Lily was sat at her favourite table in the library (it had been named her favourite because it was secluded and well hidden that even the most vile of Slytherins had to look quite a bit in order to find her) when she was pondering the difference between the Seventh Year Potter and the Fifth Year Potter. The fact that he no longer asked her out, whilst she was glad that she no longer had to see the dejected look in his eye when she said no, made her unsure. Lily Evans was not one for change, and this rather large change made her very uncomfortable.

Lily's brow creased as her eyebrows rose when she realised she _missed_ him asking her out, she missed it! Why did she miss it?

Shaking her head in an attempt to shake away the thoughts that made her stomach do funny things, Lily began to pack up her books. Too much studying, she decided. She needed a break. She began walking towards the Gryffindor common room, hoping that Hestia wouldn't be too wrapped up with Sirius and would be able to provide Lily with some comfort that the funny things in her stomach were normal.

Now, having done many rounds as a Prefect, and now as Head Girl, Lily was able to detect when a person, or people as many cases had shown, were in broom cupboards. She sighed as she prepared to open the door and shame the people inside, she hoped that this time wouldn't scar her eyes. She had only just recovered from seeing a couple of sixth year Hufflepuffs getting to know each other too well and completely naked.

"Okay, you've been caught, back to your common roo-Potter?!" Lily blanched.

Why on earth was Potter in the fourth floor broom cupboard?

_Don't be an idiot Lily, you know why. Why else would people be in a broom cupboard?!_

James smirked at Lily as he buttoned up his shirt. "Calm down Evans, Bea and I can continue elsewhere."

_Bea? Who the hell was Bea?_

A blonde haired, blue eyed, willowy beauty appeared from behind James Potter's back.

_Oh yes, Bea Wilkes._

"Evans?" Lily stopped staring at Bea and turned to look at James who was clearly questioning Lily's sanity as the girl hadn't told him he was Head Boy and so wasn't setting a good example. Very un-Lily like.

"Yeah? Oh urm, go back to the common room please, it's nearly curfew." And with that, Lily turned on her heel and began walking very quickly towards the Heads' dormitories. She didn't need Hestia to tell her that the funny things in her tummy weren't normal but she didn't know what they were. And why did she feel like that experience left her more scarred that the incident with the Hufflepuffs?

* * *

After walking Bea back to the Gryffindor common room and kissing her goodnight, James walked up to the Seventh Year Boys' dorm. Without knocking, he pushed open the door and flopped onto his old bed. Only then did he notice that the room was empty. Where were his friends?

Just as he was about to leave, the door was backed open by Sirius who was leading Hestia, by his mouth, to his bed.

"Er, guys? Can you not?"

Sirius and Hestia sprang apart where Sirius proceeded to glare at James and Hestia turned red.

"Prongs, seriously?" Sirius began to whine, "You have your own bloody room! C'mon, I had this room free, the other guys knew!"

"Pads, please, I'm sorry but I need to talk." James cringed slightly, when did he become so feminine?

Sirius was clearly thinking the same thing, "When, oh when, did you become such a girl?"

"Hey!" Hestia slapped Sirius on the arm "Don't be sexist, or tonight might be all you're getting for the next week!"

Sirius' eyes widened and James chuckled. Hestia kissed Sirius on the cheek, waved goodbye to James who nodded in return, and left the dorm. Sirius recovered and stared at James expectantly. He just cock blocked him so what he had to say had better be good.

"Lily found me in the fourth floor broom cupboard with Bea Wilkes."

"Why's that a problem?"

"Lily looked upset."

"So? She was probably just sad about the fact that her eyes had been scarred again after recovering from seeing the two Hufflepuffs last week."

"Hufflepuffs?"

"Yeah, Hestia told me. Apparently they were both completely starkers!"

"Merlin. Why wasn't I on rounds that night?"

"Full moon."

"Ah. Anyway, what do I say to Lily?"

"Who says you have to say anything? Maybe this is for the best. You have been trying to distance yourself, so maybe she'll be too embarrassed to speak to you."

"What about Bea?"

"Do you like her?"

"Well, yeah, she's gorgeous. Great kisser as well."

"So ask Bea to Hogsmeade, and then see what happens." Sirius patted James on the back as he walked to the bathroom. "But forget about Lily."

_Forget about Lily._

James sighed. Merlin knows he's tried to forget about her, but he just couldn't. Her face earlier was troubling him. She looked so upset. Lily Evans never looked upset. Angry, yes, disappointed, sure, tired, more and more these days. But upset?

James closed his eyes. Tomorrow, he was going to ask Bea to Hogsmeade, and then he was going to forget about the redhead. Hopefully.

* * *

Hestia Jones had lingered outside the boys' dorm long enough to hear that James and Bea were going to be a thing. She pushed open the door to her dorm and sat down next to Marlene.

"I thought you were going to be doing naughty things with Sirius?"

"I did too, but James interrupted saying he needed to talk to Sirius."

"So?"

"So, I'm not going to do stuff with my boyfriend while his friend watches!"

"Never thought that would stop Sirius."

"Marlene McKinnon, shut up right now. Okay, that's gross!"

"Meh. Anyway, what did James have to say?"

"Our dear Lily-"

"Cotton" Marlene interjected

"Fine, Cotton caught James and Bea Wilkes in the fourth floor broom cupboard. She looked upset."

Marlene raised her eyebrows at Hestia, who nodded in return. Both of them thought that Lily had fairly strong feelings for James and the sight of James with another girl making her upset, might just be the beginning of Lily realising this.

Before either of them could speak again, their dorm room door opened and Alice walked in giggling to herself, with a lovesick expression on her face. Her face brightened at seeing two of her best friends and she walked over and enveloped them both in a hug.

"Hello my beautiful friends!"

"Alice Prewett, are you _drunk_?!"

Alice giggled again, "No silly, I've just been with Frank." She sighed at the mention of her boyfriend.

"Okay, while you carry on dreaming about being Mrs Frank Longbottom, Hestia and I were just talking about the fact that Cotton was upset about catching James with another girl in a broom cupboard."

Alice stopped giggling. "Oh my Merlin, she likes him!"

Hestia nodded. The question was did Lily know that?


	4. Chapter 4

Lily Evans was very grateful that she was Head Girl. Obviously it was a prestigious position and she was incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to take it. But on the morning of the first Hogsmeade weekend, Lily Evans was exceptionally thankful that she was Head Girl. As Head Girl, Lily would be overseeing all students leaving the castle. She would have to keep them in order whilst Filch, the caretaker, checked each student off and allowed them on their way. This usually took a couple of hours so by the time she would be free to go, if she didn't no-one would question it. This is what she needed for Lily Evans did not have anyone to go to Hogsmeade with. Hestia was going with Sirius, Alice was going with Frank, Marlene was going with the Hufflepuff she'd seen on the platform in London and Remus was still in hospital after the full moon. So Lily would inevitably become the seventh wheel and if that wasn't enough to deter her, Potter would be there with his broom cupboard friend.

That morning, she had woken early, dressed in jeans and a green jumper and made her way down to breakfast where she eat quickly, bade goodbye to her friends and proceeded to watch the students out. She had been there for 45 minutes when James appeared.

"Evans, are you okay to carry on this for the rest of the morning? I can do it another time." Lily looked at James and was surprised to feel the funny things in her tummy again. It had been happening every time she made eye contact with James since she saw him in the cupboard. _Maybe it's just embarrassment because you caught him in a broom cupboard?_

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Thanks Evans." James gave Lily the briefest of smiles and she watched him turn away and walk to the front door of the castle where Bea was stood waiting. Lily felt like crying when she saw them kiss and walk out of the castle holding hands. She was staring at their backs when Marlene saw her.

"Cotton?" Lily jumped and sighed when she saw it was Marlene.

"Sorry Marls, I was miles away." Marlene smiled at Lily and then led her date away from the castle.

By half past 11, everyone leaving for Hogsmeade had already left and so Lily was free to do what she pleased. She decided to go to the Library and look for more books on Transfiguration, hoping she might be able understand McGonagall's lessons more. Chewing on her thumb, she browsed the shelves in the library. She didn't understand why people disliked the library so much. Sure, it gave off the impression that only homework and silence was allowed, but Lily was certain that if more people were open to it they could find the library a very peaceful place to be. It was Lily's favourite spot in the castle.

She checked out several books and made her way back to the Heads' room. She started to read one of the books on her way, and so wasn't looking where she was going. Obviously, she was going to bump into someone. That's just how the world works.

"Ooof" Lily's head collided with someone's shoulder. Stepping away, she rubbed her forehead and looked up.

"Lily?" Toby Boot, a Ravenclaw in her year, was looking down at her with concern. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, hey Toby. I'm fine, sorry for colliding with your shoulder." Lily could feel herself beginning to blush. Why couldn't she look where she was going?

Toby chuckled. "It's alright, it'll survive. Your head looks bit red though. Want to go see Pomfrey to make sure you haven't got concussion?"

"No it's alright, besides, I don't think your shoulder is that hard." Lily smiled at Toby, her earlier embarrassment fading.

"Yeah, it's probably your head that's the hardest." Toby winked at Lily who smirked in response.

They stood there chatting for a few minutes before Lily suggested something that surprised both of them.

"Do you want to chat in the Heads' common room for a bit?"

Toby raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure I'm allowed in there?"

"Yeah, the Heads set the password. It's not just Gryffindors allowed." Lily could feel her cheeks reddening again. That's a problem with being a redhead, blushing comes so very naturally.

"Let's go."

* * *

James Potter arrived back at Hogwarts in a good mood. He'd had a great time with Bea and he hadn't thought about Lily at all. Along with Sirius, Hestia and Marlene, James and Bea walked to the Heads' dorm, each exchanging stories about their time in Hogsmeade. After whispering the password so none of his friends could hear it, James pushed open the door to the Heads' Dorm. He was expecting a few things when he opened the door: Lily to be curled up reading or to be writing out Prefect patrols, or she would be in the library instead. He could whole heartedly say that he wasn't expecting to see Lily Evans sat on the sofa kissing another boy with so much enthusiasm, that James couldn't help deny that she was enjoying it.

Just as James was standing there silently not saying a word, Sirius appeared at his side.

"Flower?!" Sirius catcalled as Lily and her companion broke apart, both blushing furiously.

James could feel his blood boil when he saw Lily's 'friend' was Toby Boot. Boot was an arsehole, so what was he doing with Lily? He stayed silent while Toby made his excuses and left, but not before kissing Lily quickly on the lips. James heard the door close and stepped forward.

"What the hell Evans?" Lily looked up from discussing details with Hestia and Marlene and looked directly at James with confusion.

"What do you mean 'what the hell'?"

"What the hell are you doing letting random people into the dorm we're supposed to be sharing?!"

James saw Lily stand up and look him squarely in the eye. He could see that she was angry, she had that glint in her eye.

"Don't you judge me James Potter. Don't you dare act so high and mighty as if you wouldn't, or haven't done the same thing."

Lily's voice was level but everyone in the room heard the anger boiling below the surface.

"We do share this dorm so I am allowed to have people over, just like you are."

She began walking up the stairs to her room, but not before turning round and looking at him.

"If it bothers you so much, next time I'll see him in my room."


End file.
